Sunday proved to be an anti-climax for A’ja Wilson. The day began on a high note, with Wilson receiving her historic fourth MVP award from her boyfriend, Miami Heat star Bam Adebayo. What should have been a day of celebration quickly took a turn, however, as the Indiana Fever pulled off one of the biggest upsets in a semifinal or final since 2017, cruising past the Aces 89-73. The victory hinged on neutralizing the mercurial Wilson, a strategy that Brianna Turner was happy to explain.

Brianna Turner told the media after the game, “I mean, we know she’s the MVP. She’s like the best player in the world at the moment. So, we just tried to make all her buckets tough. We know we weren’t going to like stop her completely, but we wanted to make sure that every tough every shot had a hand in her face or she was like still in contact. So just trying to make every bucket as hard as possible and not give her any easy ones.”

A’ja Wilson has been on a tear this season, leading the league with 23.4 points a night while also putting up 10.2 rebounds and 3.1 assists. In the playoffs? She is doing even better. Coming into this semifinal, she averaged 29.3 points,8.7 rebounds, and 3.3 assists. Limiting this beast was on top of Fever’s to-do list, and they did as Wilson scored only 16 points, 13 rebounds, and 4 blocks, and went 6-22 off the field.

For literally any player, these would be acceptable numbers, but Wilson’s standards and the Aces’ dependence basically ask her to do more. So why did the 4-time MVP struggle against the 7th-best defense in the league?

Indiana resisted the trap of hard-doubling every touch, trusting Aliyah Boston and Turner to body up while staying home on Jackie Young and Chelsea Gray. Wilson would have scored enough points anyway. This way, they committed just one defender to Wilson for the majority of the game, while testing her with some of the toughest match-ups. 

And they did it with extreme accuracy as Josh Felton of Swish Appeal revealed, “per second spectrum, Aliyah Boston guarded A’ja Wilson on 35 possessions today and held her to a 16.7 eFG%.” While Brianna Turner strangled Wilson to 40 effective FG% in 12 possessions, she guarded Wilson. As a result, MVP went ice-cold with just 27.3 eFG% and a career-high in playoff misses.

To add context, Wilson’s season-wide eFG% stands at 52.4% and in Round 1 against the Storm, it was 57.1%. Fever completely choked off Aces’ best scorer, and Becky Hammon’s side couldn’t find alternatives to Wilson. 

Indiana Fever should keep shifting gears on A’ja Wilson

The Indiana Fever came out aggressively on Wilson from the opening tip. A’ja managed just 3 points and 5 rebounds in the first quarter, but many expected her to heat up later. Boston told ESPN after the period that containing Wilson is “all about embracing the grind on defense,” underscoring the physical and mental effort required to slow one of the league’s most dynamic players.

“Honestly, just trying to kind of be annoying a little bit, because A’ja is a pretty great player,” Boston said. “So for me, just trying to make sure my presence is felt.” Boston and Turner’s physical defense did not let Wilson sneak into any kind of rhythm, and thus, the Aces remained stalled. Boston going up against Wilson is always a competitive match-up, but it also means Wilson will adapt quicker. 

Aliyah Boston is undoubtedly Stephanie White’s best weapon against Wilson. But at some point, she will be needed to switch things up. She can try and double-team Wilson if she gets going, only to change things up. White could even sprinkle in Lexie Hull to cover Wilson to add variety. Instead of going man-to-man, White can try some zone 3-2 defense like she has in parts this season. 

There is also the problem of foul trouble with Aliyah Boston. She has a team-high 3.1 fouls per game. Out of which 1.4 come in the first half itself. So needs to be taken out for periods. White tasked Brianna Turner in Boston’s absence, and she did a really good job in Game 1. But Turner hasn’t really played enough throughout the season to expect a consistent shutdown of Wilson. In any case, Fever has bagged Game 1, putting more pressure on Becky Hammon’s Aces. However, the challenge gets only difficult from here on.